ESRB, Politicians To Team For 'Commitment To Parents'

The ESRB has announced that its Retail Council will be joined by Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA), George Allen (R-VA), and Mark Pryor (D-AR) in Washington DC tomorrow to announce "an unprecedented commitment on the part of leading video game retailers" on compliance regarding the sale of Mature-rated video games, and educating customers about ESRB video game ratings. The Entertainment Software Rating Board Retail Council's members include the largest North American video game retailers and renters, including Best Buy, Blockbuster, Circuit City, GameStop/EB Games, Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video/Game Crazy, Target and Wal-Mart. Together, these entities represent approximately 80% of video game sales and over 20,000 retail locations nationwide. With the ESRB under increasing fire to further regulate video games, most recently from an FTC ruling which commented that, although the video game industry has made progress in self-regulation on the marketing of violent video games, more needs to be done. This announcement is presumably the first new step toward that goal. Thus, representatives from major retailers and the Senators will be joined by the ESRB's Patricia Vance, the ESA's Doug Lowenstein, and the EMA's Bo Andersen to make the announcement, which will take place at 11:30am EST tomorrow. Gamasutra will have full details on the announcement as it happens.